New European standard logo for Digital Radio

A new logo and European standard for digital radio has been announced, seeing the start a new era of cross-nation collaboration for the consumer.

At the Radiodays Europe Conference in Milan today, a group of major broadcasters from Germany, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Poland announced the common European specification for digital radio receivers, including FM, DAB, DAB+, and agreed levels of receiver sensitivity.

It was confirmed at the conference that major manufacturers including Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Roberts Radio and Pure had agreed to build to the common European specification.

The broadcasters at the conference said that pan-European collaboration is essential to support the growth of digital radio and to ensure a genuine single European market for digital radio.

Speaking at the conference Laurence Harrison from Digital Radio UK and Jacqueline Bierhorst, Project Director from Digital Radio+ Netherlands, highlighted digital radio progress by market and spoke of a new era of cross-nation collaboration for consumer and supply chain communications. They announced the launch of a new pan-European web page with a common and consistent European digital radio logo, giving details of the new common specification, digital radio facts and coverage information for each country. The Digital Radio European web page will be launched in June 2015.

In the session Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, EBU Media Director, confirmed that digital radio is the future for radio broadcasters across Europe, and Ole Jorgen Torvmark, CEO of Digital Radio Norge, confirmed Norway’s plans for a 2017 radio switchover.

Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, EBU Media Director, said: “The new common digital radio specification encourages broadcasters all over Europe to offer more hybrid content to their audience. This ensures that radio stays indispensable in our converging media world. The new standard also fits into the scheme of an EBU experts group working on hybrid radio applications.”

Jacqueline Bierhorst, Project Director of Digital Radio+ Netherlands, said: “We are pleased that a common specification for digital radios has been agreed – it’s vital for the whole industry that collaboration takes place among broadcasters.”

Laurence Harrison, Director of Market Development of Digital Radio UK, said: “This common European specification for digital radio is great news for car manufacturers and radio manufacturers as it means their products will be accepted with confidence across the European market – it’s is a major step forward in digital radio’s development across Europe.”